Mom, along with the rest of us had been warned about all of the possible side effects of chemo and we were all nervous about Mom\u2019s first round.\u00a0 She would be receiving chemo one day a month by IV and it would last about 5 hours.\u00a0 So at the end of September of 2009 we all held our breath.\u00a0 Auntie A came up to sit with her during chemo and stay with her for the first few days to be sure everything was all right.\u00a0 Mom didn\u2019t really let on her fears.\u00a0 She just thought of it as a no-choice issue.\u00a0 This is what she had to do to get better and she was determined that she would come through it just fine.\u00a0 My sister and I went to see her and called her over the next few days to the point where I think it really annoyed her.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t see what the fuss was all about.<\/p>\n
Mom had problems with her veins for as long as I can remember.\u00a0 For years she had to have blood taken out of the top of her hands instead of the inside of her elbow, which is quite painful.\u00a0 The nurses also had problems getting her IV in so they decided to put in a \u201cpic line\u201d, which is a semi-permanent tiny tube that goes in the upper arm and is threaded through to a major artery near the heart.\u00a0 It could be used to deliver chemo and take blood.\u00a0 Unfortunately the pic lines didn\u2019t work very well either and they had to be redone a few times.\u00a0 But Mom and the rest of us were thankful that there was an alternative to the painful needles every few days.<\/p>\n
Mom came through it pretty well for chemo.\u00a0 She had a few side effects but they weren\u2019t as severe as expected.\u00a0 She had some nausea but more sensitivity to food.\u00a0 There were some foods that no longer agreed with her.\u00a0 She hadn\u2019t had a great appetite for months but this sure didn\u2019t help.\u00a0 Eggs was one that was a bit of a surprise for her and a disappointment.\u00a0 She was tired but the worst was the joint pain.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t really feel anything different the first day but the second day the joint pain started and got so bad she had a hard time moving for a few days and then it slowly went away.\u00a0 So she had about a week of being uncomfortable and in pain.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t really slow her down much.\u00a0 She felt it was important to keep her life as normal as possible to keep her spirits up so she and my Aunt would schedule breakfast and other outings around home care visits and nurses.<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s weight continued to drop as the chemo cycles continued and with each chemo cycle we held our breath knowing that the less severe aspects of the drugs could give way to much worse.\u00a0 She saw her hair loss as no big deal.\u00a0 Due to the trauma of my Dad\u2019s death she had started to lose her hair years before.\u00a0 This baldness was easier to explain than the complexity of trauma and hormone deficiency.\u00a0 So for her it was a bit of a relief.\u00a0 Thankfully the side effects were minimal through the first 4 chemo treatments into December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mom, along with the rest of us had been warned about all of the possible side effects of chemo and we were all nervous about Mom\u2019s first round.\u00a0 She would be receiving chemo one day a month by IV and … Continue reading